Research on the influence of teachers’ ICT Capacity on classroom teaching quality: An intermediary model based on self-efficacy

Abstract

As the core participants and implementers of the digital transformation in education, enhancing teachers’ proficiency in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) emerges as a crucial lever for catalyzing educational reform. Based on the technology integration theory and constructivism theory, using the data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) as the research sample, the OLS multiple regression model, Shapley value decomposition method, mediation effect model, quantile regression model, and threshold regression model were used to empirically examine the empowerment effect, mechanism effect, heterogeneity effect, and threshold effect of teachers’ ICT capacity on classroom teaching quality. The study found that, compared with OECD countries, there is much room for improvement in the ICT capacity of teachers in Shanghai, China, where teachers receive adequate ICT training, but there is a serious lack of digital technology literacy among teachers, and the phenomenon of “acceptance in reason but detachment in practice” is significant. The ability of teachers to utilize information and communication technology (ICT) significantly influences classroom teaching quality, with teachers’ self-efficacy playing a partially mediating role. Enhancing teachers’ ICT capacity has the strongest impact on the “cognitive mobilization” dimension, while its effect on the “classroom management” dimension is comparatively weaker. Moreover, the empowering effect of information and communication technology increases as the quality of teachers' teaching improves, and to some extent, there is a “Matthew effect” that leads to a widening of the gap in the quality of classroom teaching. Furthermore, teachers’ ICT capacity in the process of promoting the improvement of classroom teaching quality is characterized by the double-threshold effect of “stair-step rise”. With the improvement of teachers’ ICT capacity, its effect on the improvement of classroom teaching quality shows marginal incremental characteristics, breaking the “ceiling effect”. Based on these findings, recommendations include enhancing the multi-principal ecosystem of digital education, developing a digital profile of teachers’ teaching, providing supportive resources in a hierarchical and categorized manner, and fostering the establishment of a teacher-learning community.